Wednesday, July 29, 2009

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

Ok, two days late but here is my version of the milans.I didn't want to add citrus flavor so I added some rum flavoring I had sitting around to the cookies. I thought the cookies were quite sweet so I went with bittersweet chocolate for the filling. These cookies were really rather easy. The hardest part was making pairs the same size to get a pretty cookie. The few that I made just circular rather than oval actually came out nicer & I'll do that next time. The original recipe said it made 3 dozen so I cut that to 1/3 which still yielded 2 dozen (the recipe never states how big your piped cookies should be so perhaps mine were smaller). Below is the recipe adapted to the smaller size with my notes in italics.

Milan Cookies Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network website(adapted to be 1/3 the original quantity)

2T + 2 t cup heavy cream2 1/4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped I used bittersweet. Chop it very fine to get that small amount of cream to melt it.

1. In a mixer with paddle attachment cream the butter and the sugar. I just used the regular beaters & it seemed fine.2. Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla and rum flavoring. 3. Add the flour and mix until just well mixed. 4. With a small (1/4-inch) plain tip, pipe 1-inch sections of batter onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, spacing them 2 inches apart as they spread. I used the tip that the other tips attach to which was about 1/2-inch & piped the cookies to be about 1 1/2-inch long. I used a silpad instead of parchment paper.5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the pan. My cookies took between 13 & 15 minutes to get brown edges.6. While waiting for the cookies to cool, in a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream. If my microwave was working I would have just heated the cream & chocolate in there since the amount of cream was so small.7. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl, whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well. 8. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools). 9. Spread a thin amount of the filling onto the flat side of a cookie while the filling is still soft and press the flat side of a second cookie on top. I did a thin amount & ended up with a lot of extra chocolate. Next time I'll do a thicker layer.10. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.

Your Milans not only look like the real thing, but ten times better due to the delicate, lacy browned edges. I too had trouble matching up cookies to sandwich, and when I got some perfect ovals, well close to perfect, I just turned the flaws to the other side..lol Great job on this challenge!